2013: Other Daily Press stories of note

December 29, 2013

A list of the top stories of 2013 would be incomplete without mentioning these notable news items:

•Molly Joseph Ward resigns as Hampton mayor: Stepping away from her post first to join the Obama administration, Ward left that position in December to become Virginia's secretary of natural resources under Gov.-elect Terry McAuliffe.

•Wallops Island connects with the International Space Station: Antares took to the skies, with private company Orbital Sciences launching resupply missions from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility. Flights will continue in 2014.

•The death of Walter Segaloff, founder of An Achievable Dream: Segaloff was remembered for his philanthropy and community service, leaving behind a continuing legacy of quality education for disadvantaged students.

•Fort Monroe milestones: The Army transferred 313 acres to the Fort Monroe Authority and Gov. Bob McDonnell approved the authority's master plan, which outlines land uses on the property.

•Mentally ill get time, not treatment: Virginia houses more of the seriously mentally ill in its jails than in the state's hospitals — and their numbers are growing. These include several hundred at Hampton Roads Regional Jail, where some are awaiting trial and others have been convicted of crimes often resulting from their illness.

•Racially-charged emails shared by Isle of Wight officials: Isle of Wight Supervisor Byron "Buzz" Bailey and School Board member Herb DeGroft admitted forwarding racially charged emails to each other and other county officials via personal email addresses. A group of residents sought to remove them from office, but a judge found that the men had not done enough to warrant their removal.

•Couple sentenced in 'caged girl' case: Brian and Shannon Gore were each sentenced to 30 years in prison in June. The Gores had penned their daughter in a makeshift cage in a darkened bedroom, apparently for years.

•Evidence of cannibalism found at Jamestown: Archaeologists and forensic scientists working with human remains recovered at Historic Jamestowne last summer reported that their studies turned up the first physical evidence of the cannibalism that took place during the Starving Time of 1609-10.

•11-year-old abducted in Isle of Wight: An elementary school student was abducted from a bus stop in Carrollton, driven around for hours, and eventually released. Though the girl was able to provide a detailed description of both the man and his vehicle, the suspect remains at-large.

•Family's struggle with Early Onset Alzheimer's continues: Our second annual profile of Newport News resident Jim Garner, 51, looked at his declining health, the effect on his wife and young children, and their advocacy for research and funding for the disease. Garner is a participant in cutting edge clinical trials examining inflammation in the brain as a new tool for early diagnosis.